... is a weird place to live. I mean, if I had been a pilgrim in seventeen-seventy-something, and had my choice of the whole damn country to pick some free land, I would not have stopped here.

My advice to future pilgrims: Don't just squat in the first place that looks halfway decent and isn't already taken. If you have a few mild winters, you'll spend a couple years chopping trees, building cabins, killing Injuns and other varmnits and having eight or twelve kids. Then, when two or three real badass winters come along, you're all fagged and knackered, and attached to your homestead, and the kids won't want to change schools, and you'll say "fuggit ah'll jest stay heer".

So many places in Australia, and the rest of the world are so......unattractive in many ways. Who was that first person who thought, "Yup, here looks like a fine place to stay and perhaps start a town"....

Why didn't they just KEEP ON GOING !!!!?????

Of course, natural resources was the cause of many - gold rush and the like.......

Carps are fun to catch, as they can be one of the biggest fishes found in Indiana waters. He is vehemently opposed to being caught, which of course makes it more fun. His value as a sport fish is undeniable, but mid westerners belonging to my particular ethnic group find him to be a 'trash fish', and most unworthy of the skillet. He is bony, oily, and since he is a bottom feeder he contains a big yucky mud vein. However, members of a certain other ethnic group who may be found fishing along the riverbank will readily accept the gift of an unwanted specimen.

Among local redneck raconteurs discussing the common carp, you may overhear this time honored recipe for preparing the divisive dish:

"Build a great big far. Take ya carp and nail it to a board, then throw the whole thang in the far. After it barns an hour or two, scrape wuts left of yer carp off'n the board. Then eat the board."